Moffat County swimming looks strong in home meet

Craig  The Moffat County boys swim team returned to the pool Saturday for its home meet and saw that it hadn’t lost too much from its time off during spring break.

The Bulldogs hosted the District 51 team (which has swimmers from Palisade, Grand Junction and Fruita schools) and some swimmers from Glenwood Springs at the MCHS pool and lost to the Griffins, a much larger team. But the Bulldogs came away with some good results, leading off the meet with a win in the 200-yard medley relay. The team of Dalton Kendall, Cody McDermott, Brenden Carta and Jesse Kurz finished in 2:08.76.

Kendall also was able to pick up a win in the 50-yard freestyle with a swim of 26.06 seconds. The senior said he felt good Saturday.

“It felt like it was all there,” Kendall said. “Everything went smooth. My strokes were nice and long.”

Kendall has qualified for state in the 50 free, 100 free and 100 backstroke but likely will swim two of those events, along with the 200 relays the team has qualified in. He swam only the backstroke event Saturday, and he said it likely will take him until the state meet in May to decide which events he’ll pursue there.

Other Moffat County swimmers had good individual performances, as well. McDermott took second in the 100 breaststroke in 1:24.37.

“It felt all right today,” he said. “It’s kind of weird swimming yards versus meters because you feel like you’re really going quickly. I thought I swam well.”

Levi Prisbey, a first-time member of the team, was one of several swimmers to cut time. Prisbey shaved 11 seconds off his best 100 free time and nearly six seconds in the 100 back.

“We had some great swims,” coach Meghan Francone said. “We were able to see who has gotten back to it in practice and whose spring break has sort of extended.”

Some of the Bulldogs’ times lagged compared to what they swam in Montrose three weeks ago, a common occurrence that swimmers have to battle after the break. McDermott thinks the Bulldogs will get it back quickly.

“After a while, you just get the mindset to push yourself,” he said. “You don’t think about your times, you think about something to get you through the day and you work hard in practice.”